Original subtitles

NARRATOR: An enormous freight train

is out of control, tearing through the Canadian Rockies.

The crew does nothing to slow the train's terrifying speed.

Jack, are you there?

NARRATOR: Charging the other way,

a passenger train with more than 100 people on board.

Front end, Jack, come in.

Oh, my god.

CONDUCTOR: Mayday, mayday.

We're doing 90 miles an hour, out of control.

SHIP STEWARD: Take a life jacket!

CAPTAIN: Where's the Coast Guard?

SHIP STEWARD: Don't let go!

MAN: He's gonna crash!

NARRATOR: It's one of the most spectacular train rides

in the world.

Every year, thousands of people take the slow route

through Canada's Rocky Mountains.

Avoiding traffic, they take the train

and leave the driving to somebody else.

In late winter 1986, a gentle trip to the Rockies

will end tragically.

It was like a mini atom bomb.

And all of a sudden, it ignited.

Woof!

I'm gonna help you.

JAMES HEYD: I can hear the women screaming, you know--

--to save her baby.

NARRATOR: An investigation makes shocking discoveries about

the Canadian railroad industry.

At that time, I didn't think that anything was wrong.

NARRATOR: February 8, 1986.

Spectacular northern lights dance

across the sky over Edson, Alberta in Western Canada.

NARRATOR: Driving freight trains has been the lifelong ambition

of 48-year-old Canadian National Railways engineer Jack Hudson.

But after 16 years on the job, he knows all too well that it

can be a grueling career.

Because Canadian freight trains travel such vast distances,

up to 12 local crews may be used in the course

of one cross-country journey.

Hudson works a mountainous stretch of track

through Alberta running between his hometown of Jasper

and Edson to the east.

Like many trainmen, Hudson works a regular beat,

driving the same stretch of track,

then turning around again with another train day after day.

At around 11 PM last night, Hudson got off a freight train

from Jasper and spent the night here in the company bunkhouse

at Edson.

Now he's up again, after just 3 and 1/2 hours of sleep,

to return to Jasper.

At the station, he's joined by his brakeman.

Like Hudson, 25-year-old Mark Edwards lives in Jasper.

And like Hudson, he hasn't slept very much.

Did you get some rest?

Not much.

Got a touch the flu.

Could use a full night's sleep.

NARRATOR: Hudson and Edwards will ride

up front in the first engine.

Hudson drives the train, while Edwards

keeps his eye on the brakes and pitches

in if Hudson needs any help.

Known to his fellow railmen as Smitty,

33-year-old Wayne Smith is Hudson's conductor.

He's the last of the three-man crew in charge of the freight

train this morning.

Smitty.

NARRATOR: Smith rides in the caboose,

the last car in the train.

He acts as an extra set of eyes, making

sure the men in the front end know

what's going on behind them.

The three are longtime employees of Canadian National,

or CN, rail, and all of them have

been up and down this length of track countless times before.

The train they are riding today is enormous.

CN Train 413 is more than a mile long.

Its cars are filled with grain, metal pipes, and chemicals.

It tips the scales at more than 12,000 tons.

As the freighter rolls into Edson,

it slows but doesn't stop.

Getting it started again would take time,

and the crew wants to get home as soon as possible.

Hudson and Edwards take the train on the fly,

boarding it as it rolls along.

According to CN Rail's code of conduct, this is illegal,

but it's something crews do routinely.

See you.

All set.

Jack.

Clear signal leaving Edson.

Clear signal leaving Edson.

NARRATOR: A key part of Smith's job

is to stay in touch with the front end

of the train to make sure the crew stays

alert throughout the journey.

When the caboose pulls alongside the platform,

Smith climbs aboard.

OK, he's got the brakes off.

You're good to go.

See you later.

NARRATOR: At 6:40 AM, Hudson pushes the throttle.

The freight train picks up speed as its 8,000 horsepower diesel

engines open up.

The CN freight train begins the long haul west to Jasper.

The men are going home.

As 413 roars west, a Via passenger train

speeds east on the same track.

NARRATOR: Via Rail's Super Continental passenger train No.

4 is heading to Edmonton, Alberta.

More than 100 passengers are enjoying

the spectacular scenery of the rugged Canadian Rockies.

36-year-old Jamie Heyd is an auto worker.

He's returning to his home in Ontario

after a two-week visit with family in Vancouver.

It's a very, very small community

that you're in close proximity with a lot of people

very, very suddenly, and so there's

a lot of people we got to meet and got to interact with.

I remember there was a couple of ladies that we--

that we met over dinner.

One was-- was very, very pregnant.

NARRATOR: While some passengers are still sleeping,

Heyd goes into the day coach to do

some reading before breakfast.

It's the fourth car in the train.

JAMES HEYD: I remember this, uh, this lady,

and she had a little boy with her,

about three years old or whatever.

He was quite in awe.

The little child was quite in awe of the scenery.

So I sat down and that, and I lifted the shade a little bit

so I could get some of the daylight coming in,

and I started to read a pocket novel.

NARRATOR: Several cars behind Heyd

is 61-year-old assistant conductor Herbert Timpe.

An old hand on the Canadian passenger line,

he's been riding this route for seven years.

I had to be the assistant conductor

and look after the passengers on that train.

Next stop--

Hinton.

NARRATOR: The passenger train is pulling into Hinton.

The freight train is just about to reach Hargwen

Station, 12 and 1/2 miles east.

Here, the rail line becomes double tracked

so trains can pass each other.

413 will take the upper track, while the passenger

train passes below it.

As Hudson approaches the split in the tracks,

signal lights tell him to slow the train down.

Smitty, we've got an Approach Limited signal at Hargwen.

Next station-- Dalehurst.

Over?

Head end of 413 Approach Limited at Hargwen.

Next station-- Dalehurst.

Out.

NARRATOR: These are the last words

these men will ever exchange.

A dispatcher in Edmonton sets a switch,

and 413 is routed onto the upper track.

The Via passenger train arrives at Hinton station at 8:20 AM.

As breakfast is served, 61-year-old Kenneth Cuttle

arrives in the dome car.

Cuttle served in the war as a Royal Marine.

KENNETH CUTTLE: It was February.

I was going to Edmonton to look for another job.

The train was pretty comfortable,

you know, not many people on board.

I said, let's go up to the dome car,

because it was just coming light,

and we see lots of things of which you might

not get another chance to see.

We were in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

NARRATOR: There are now 115 people on board,

but the train will never make it to Edmonton,

and the passengers and crew enjoying the early morning trip

will soon be fighting for their lives.

NARRATOR: It's a clear, sunny morning on board a passenger

train in Western Canada.

Breakfast is being served as the train rolls

east to the Canadian Rockies.

A little over 9 miles away, a 12,000 ton freight train,

CN 413, is rumbling toward it.

With diesel engines running at full throttle,

it's pulling 115 rail cars of grain and hazardous material.

From the outside, everything looks normal.

What's going on inside the lead engine of 413

is about to become one of the greatest mysteries

in Canadian railroad history.

Freight trains and passenger trains

often travel on the same track.

For short sections, the tracks splits

so trains heading in opposite directions can pass safely.

Today, 413 is on the upper half of the loop.

Signals tell the freight train to slow, then stop completely.

The signals will only turn green again once the passenger train

has passed by safely below.

Then, the freight train can rejoin the main line.

But 413 isn't slowing down.

It's heading downhill, and it charges

through the warning lights.

If it doesn't stop soon, it will return

to the main line at full speed, straight into the path

of the passenger train.

Unaware that 413 is not stopping,

the passenger train continues east.

Up ahead, the freight train thunders past the last set

of signals, ignoring three red lights that command it to stop.

It slams back onto the main line.

It's traveling 60 miles an hour and weighs

more than 12,000 tons, and it's not slowing down.

Herbert Timpe takes a break.

NARRATOR: Ken Cuttle has a clear view of the railway ahead.

KENNETH CUTTLE: I got in a conversation

with an English guy.

And he had his back to the front,

and I was looking over his shoulder,

forward, the way the train was going.

There was a flickering light in the distance.

And not knowing the track layout,

I thought, oh, they must be another line,

and if it's another train, it's going to go past us, you know.

Oh, my god.

Oh, my god!

And then, boom.

NARRATOR: The trains collide like two

charging rams at a combined speed of 124 miles per hour.

Passengers are rocked by one collision

after another, as 70 freight cars slam into the wreckage.

Like an incoming wave, grain cars,

long pipes three foot in diameter, 30 feet in length.

You name it.

And these were flying through the air like toys.

NARRATOR: Thrown forward by the force of the collision,

one freight car flies through the air,

then comes smashing down on the Via train.

And the whole world seemed to explode.

It was like a mini atom bomb.

It was a big mushroom of black smoke.

Then everything was dark.

I could no longer breathe because everything

was filled with smoke.

Oh, I'm gonna die.

And the third thing that happened

was I just resigned myself to that.

HERBERT TIMPE: I've been working about 37 years and--

on the railroad, and I never, never seen anything so bad.

KENNETH CUTTLE: The wave of metal grain cars

stopped just where the dome car was.

If it had gone another 30 feet, it

would have covered us as well.

NARRATOR: More than a mile behind the engine,

the caboose of Train 413 finally lurches to a stop.

Conductor Wayne Smith sees a ball of fire in the distance,

but he has no idea how bad the situation is.

Frontend 413, I think we're in the bush or we're derailed.

There is a big explosion up here,

and we have chemicals on the train, so stay away from it.

Stay away from the dangerous goods!

NARRATOR: But all Smith gets in reply is an ominous silence.

Passengers struggle to escape the mangled wreck

as the smoke thickens.

I was trained well in the Royal Marines

to survive and to act spontaneously.

There was a window at the back of the dome car,

and it was all cracked, and I just

jumped up on the seat, smashed my head through the glass roof.

I shouted come on let's get out!

NARRATOR: Cuttle and others jump from the car.

And I look back, and all of a sudden it ignited.

Woof!

(SOFTLY) Get up.

NARRATOR: Below, in the lounge car,

more passengers also managed to escape,

but others aren't so lucky.

Many are still trapped in the burning cars,

including passenger Jamie Heyd.

JAMES HEYD: The roof of the coach had been crunched down,

and I'd lost my glasses.

I couldn't see.

I couldn't breathe.

And here it was the porter that had

been behind the snack bar had opened up this-- this exit way.

And he had vamoosed out through it,

and I took off out behind it too.

PASSENGER: Please save us!

Snap out it.

JAMES HEYD: He was in shock.

Hey, snap out of it.

JAMES HEYD: Hey buddy, pull it together here.

You know, there's people in here,

and we got to do something about it.

But--

NARRATOR: Half blind without his glasses,

Heyd goes back inside to try to help others.

PASSENGER: Help!

413 here dispatcher.

NARRATOR: Back in the caboose, Smith

is talking to the freight train's

dispatcher more than 170 miles away in Edmonton.

We've got to get a doctor out here.

NARRATOR: Herb Timpe, the assistant conductor

on the passenger train hears the conversation and breaks in.

There's cars and passenger coaches all over the ditch.

HERBERT TIMPE (ON RADIO): And get an ambulance!

And there's a whole bunch of cars on fire.

(FRANTICALLY) You get that dispatcher?

DISPATCHER (ON RADIO): OK, that's right on the switch

at Dalehurst, eh?

Yes, I'm gonna walk up there and see

if I can be of any assistance.

DISPATCHER (ON RADIO): What was the signal at Dalehurst

when your head in called it?

Uh, pardon me?

DISPATCHER (ON RADIO): What was that signal

on that signal at Dalehurst?

W-- well, I was calling him for the signal

at Dalehurst quite a few times, but I kept calling him,

and there was no answer.

DISPATCHER (ON RADIO): Well, it should

have been red on the panel.

Well, he must have ran it then, dispatcher, because I

could not get a hold of him.

I tried, and I tried.

DISPATCHER (ON RADIO): OK, all-- all right.

PASSENGER: Help me!

Help!

NARRATOR: Back at the passenger train,

Jamie Heyd tries to save whomever he can.

Are you OK?

I'm gonna help you.

NARRATOR: Heyd can hear the screams of men and women

trapped in the flames.

And I can hear the women

that I had

dinner with the night before screaming.

You know, um,

to save her baby.

NARRATOR: Heyd was not able to save the mother and her child.

They are out of reach under debris.

That was, uh, that was difficult.

KENNETH CUTTLE: People who were trapped

and couldn't get out screaming, screaming

like you've never heard.

Anybody in front of me in that coach was dead.

For whatever the reasons, it wasn't my time to go

then, for whatever the reasons.

NARRATOR: Wayne Smith is devastated.

He can't reach his two friends at the front of the freight

train, and he can't understand what happened to cause

such an enormous disaster.

NARRATOR: In Western Canada, a freight train

is smashed head on into a passenger train

carrying more than 100 people.

In the minutes after the collision,

survivors are dragging themselves

from the burning wreckage, while others

are still trapped inside.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable

Mark Linnell is one of the first to arrive at the crash.

I was told that it was a train derailment, not a train crash.

I mean, there's a double whammy.

KENNETH CUTTLE: The RCMP officer came he could hardly speak.

His mouth dropped open, and he said,

I can't believe what I'm witnessing.

NARRATOR: It's a horrifying scene.

Pictures taken shortly after the crash show utter devastation.

I mean, I was just flabbergasted.

I just couldn't believe it.

At that instant, that's quite the thing to see.

NARRATOR: The collision is 11 miles from the town of Hinton.

It takes emergency crews some 45 minutes to arrive.

MARK LINNELL: I was in the Marines in England for 14

years, and I'd seen a lot a lot of disasters,

man-made disasters, terrorist bombs,

and I thought I'd seen it all.

There was a lot of blunt force trauma,

of course flying glass, burns.

And then I saw what appeared to be two bodies in the restaurant

car hugging each other, so we found out

later that was a man and wife.

And this was one heck of a shock.

NARRATOR: As Linnell is escorting survivors away

from the site, he sees a lone man with a radio

coming down the track.

How's the, uh-- how's the front end doing?

Uh--

What's your name?

WAYNE SMITH: It's-- it's--

NARRATOR: Smith is about to learn

that his colleagues are dead.

Is everything OK?

Like, what happened?

Like, did they make contact with the--

We're still under an investigation,

and there's not a lot I can tell you right now.

OK, so they still might be--

I mean--

I'm really sorry.

MARK LINNELL: He'd be distraught and shaken,

and his train is wrecked, and all these people dead.

NARRATOR: The Hinton disaster is Canada's worst

railway accident in 35 years.

More than $30 million of property is destroyed.

23 people are dead, and 71 others are injured.

Wayne Smith is the only surviving crew member

of CN 413, the only man who could explain how

a 12,000 ton freight train plowed headfirst

into a passenger train.

His testimony could be critical to unraveling

the cause of the disaster.

Two days after the collision, the Alberta government

establishes an official commission of inquiry,

and the honorable justice René P.

Foisy leads the investigation.

Judge Foisy is a justice of the Alberta Court of Appeal.

It was reasonably simple, I mean, what caused the accident.

But it turned out to be a lot more complicated than that

because there were no easy answers

as to what caused the accident.

NARRATOR: Freight and passenger trains

routinely use the same tracks without incident.

What was different this time?

Over the next 11 months, Foisy calls

on 150 witnesses and specialists to help him find out.

I think what has most surprised me is

the-- the complex procedures, the equipment,

the overall complexity that--

that we have to look at in running a railroad,

and what goes on in running a railroad.

NARRATOR: With conductor Smith temporarily unavailable,

Foisy begins by studying the signals that should have

told the freight train to stop.

If they weren't working, the crew on 413

may not have thought they needed to slow down.

CN did a very in-depth test on the signal system,

and it was determined that it was performing properly.

We went further.

We hired our own independent experts to test the system.

NARRATOR: The switches which operate

the signal lights were frozen in position after the accident.

Electrical engineer Eugene Kowch was hired to read them.

Perhaps a mechanical fault in the system

had turned the signals green, telling the freight

train to speed through.

A fault does not give a positive green light

to any situation.

So if there was a fault in any controls part of the system,

it would have forced everything to go to red, which meant

the passenger train would have stopped

and would have forced the freight train to stop.

NARRATOR: If a mechanical problem wasn't the cause,

there was a more chilling possibility.

Perhaps someone set the signals to green on purpose, causing

the two trains to collide.

Kowch dismisses that too.

To do that would mean that somebody

would have to actually go there and really

maliciously change things.

And there was no sign of any tampering on any mechanisms.

Basically, our conclusion-- we felt that the system was sound

and was safe.

NARRATOR: Foisy believes the lights were red,

but the train continued anyway.

Perhaps another mechanical fault was behind the crash.

Well I was calling him for the signal at Dalehurst

quite a few--

NARRATOR: In his statement after the crash,

conductor Wayne Smith told Royal Canadian Mounted Police

officers that something was wrong with his radio

that morning.

--get a hold of him.

I tried, and I tried.

NARRATOR: Maybe the engineer at the front of the train

was having mechanical problems but wasn't able to get

in contact with Smith.

Joseph Hebert examines the portable radios the crew used.

The first test was with the radio

that was on the train that was in the accident at Hinton.

The radio performed to specification.

NARRATOR: But even if the radios themselves were working,

there could have been another problem.

Do you know for a fact that he was--

NARRATOR: Many CN employees claim

there are places where radio communication is impossible,

so-called dead spots.

And it's not a dead spot that's

there 365 days out of the year.

NARRATOR: The possibility was also examined and dismissed.

Sometimes you can't.

Some radios are stronger.

Some are weaker.

The second test done, as far as communications

between the locomotive and the caboose,

was done with the same type of radio

as was used at the time the accident took place.

The field test with that type of radio

had satisfactory performance.

The evidence was, uh, pretty clear,

and we concluded that there were no dead spots.

NARRATOR: One other possible explanation is examined.

Natural phenomena like the northern lights

can also affect radio performance.

Um, I've got a measure at Medicine Lodge.

JOSEPH HEBERT: Northern lights can build up very high currents

and communications lines.

Anything even hooked up to a radio could pick it up.

My determination of it was that they were not a factor.

NARRATOR: If the signals were red,

and the radios were working, why had the train crashed?

OK, so just explain to me how these--

NARRATOR: Foisy examines an ingenious piece of technology,

the hot box detector.

Sitting beside the track, hot box

detectors measure the temperature

of a train's wheels and axles.

They also record the speed of trains as they roar by.

When Foisy and his advisors examine the hot box data,

they make a telling discovery.

When the front of the freight train

passed the hot box detector just after Hargwen,

it was traveling a little over 37 miles an hour.

But by the time the caboose passed the detector,

the train was going more than 45 miles an hour.

Despite signals telling it to slow down,

the train was speeding up.

For the last five miles, we were able to determine

that the freight train was going at least 59 miles an hour,

perhaps as high as 60 or 61.

There were no brake applications before the crash as well.

NARRATOR: The crew let the train travel too fast.

They did not obey signals to stop,

and they never applied the brakes.

It all points to a train that was out of control.

Oh, my god!

NARRATOR: With mechanical problems ruled out,

Foisy begins to look at the crew of the freight train.

Perhaps there is something about engineer Jack Hudson

who was in charge that could explain what happened that day.

As Foisy he begins sifting through Hudson's

medical records and interviewing his family,

he makes a disturbing discovery.

NARRATOR: A train collision in Western Canada

has killed 23 people, another 71 are injured.

The man leading the inquiry into the disaster

has ruled out mechanical problems.

Judge René Foisy now takes a closer look at Jack Hudson,

the 16-year veteran who is driving the freight train.

When Foisy and the commission review Hudson's medical files,

they're shocked by what they discover.

Mr. Hudson was a man who-- who was sick.

He was an alcoholic.

He had high blood pressure, which was problematic.

He had diabetes.

He had a pancreatic attack the summer before this accident.

He had to wear a colostomy for a number of months.

NARRATOR: Foisy wonders if this long list of illnesses

could somehow have led to the crash.

DERRICK POUNDER: The engineer, Jack Hudson,

had been killed outright in the crash and had severe injuries,

so we couldn't determine whether there'd been a catastrophic

medical event-- whether he'd had a heart attack,

for example, or a stroke--

which had incapacitated him.

But we were able to do toxicology,

and there was no alcohol or drugs present.

NARRATOR: If Hudson did have a stroke or heart

attack at the controls, why didn't his brakeman,

Mark Edwards, take any action?

Investigators come up with one plausible answer.

Did you get some rest?

Not much.

Got a touch of the flu.

Could use a full night's sleep.

NARRATOR: Perhaps Edwards had been asleep on the job.

Dr. Alison Smiley is an expert on sleep and fatigue.

Jack Hudson, he had had, at the very most, before he went

on duty that day, 3 and 1/2 hours of sleep,

and that is if he slept from the last moment somebody

saw him until the moment somebody next

saw him again, 3 and 1/2 hours.

Brakeman said he had a touch of the flu,

and he'd had five hours sleep the night before.

Wayne Smith, similarly, had had insufficient sleep, about five

hours, before the collision.

NARRATOR: As the freight train passed the signals

telling it to stop, the entire crew may have been fast asleep.

You could work at any time of the day.

So one day, you might start at 4:00 in the morning.

The next day, you start at 2:00 in the afternoon.

Their hours were so erratic.

They were continually in a jet lag state

because their physiology was never

sort of fully adjusted to any particular working hours.

NARRATOR: To stay alert, train engineers

face many challenges, including long rides up and down

the same stretch of track.

The tracks going by one after the other,

it's a very soporific situation to work

in and easy to see how somebody--

no matter how motivated--

could fall asleep.

NARRATOR: At the time, trains were equipped with safety

devices that would automatically stop a train

if the engine man died or fell asleep

the so-called "deadman's pedal."

Basically, the engineer is supposed to keep his foot

on the pedal, and while he's--

his foot is on the pedal, the train won't stop.

If that pedal isn't depressed, then it

will, after a number of seconds, give a warning,

which is quite audible.

And if nothing happens then, it will stop the train.

NARRATOR: But Foisy discovers that for many train men,

disabling the dead man's pedal was standard practice.

One of the excuses that was given by the engineers

is that, to go long distances, having

to keep your foot on that pedal was very uncomfortable.

And so that they would sometimes put something

on the pedal-- a lunchbox, or something heavy enough

to keep it depressed-- so that they could stretch their legs.

Unfortunately, what was happening,

this pedal was being depressed for long, long periods of time.

NARRATOR: But even if Hudson and Edwards had fallen asleep

at the front of the train, and the dead man's pedal was

rigged, conductor Wayne Smith at the back

could still have prevented the disaster.

Almost two months into the Foisy inquiry, Smith takes the stand.

Doctors kept him from testifying sooner,

saying he was too traumatized by the accident.

Now, for the first time, investigators

hear Smith reconstruct events on the freight

train in the moments leading up to the disaster.

I was sitting, looking out the back of the train

from my desk when we passed mile board 169.

That's the, uh-- that's the landmark that I use to initiate

a call to the engineer to ask for the display at the

Dalehurst approach signal.

Head end of 413, what indication do you have at the Dalehurst

approach signal 1703?

Over.

NARRATOR: The front end of the train is supposed to respond,

letting Smith know they've seen the signal lights

telling them to slow down.

Head of 413, can you hear me?

Over.

I-- I probably called them three or four times.

I, uh, I didn't get a response on my gray radio.

There was, uh, there was something wrong with it.

What's the indication at signal 1703?

Over.

NARRATOR: It's a surprising piece of testimony.

Foisy already knows the radios were working fine.

When Smith is asked how fast he thought

the train was going before the collision,

Foisy gets another surprise.

I felt the front end give a light brake

application on the caboose.

Coming around the curve, I felt we

were doing a track speed of about 50 miles an hour or less.

NARRATOR: But according to the hot box detectors,

the train was traveling 10 miles an hour over track speed,

and no one applied the brakes.

WAYNE SMITH: I went to my red radio,

and I tried to get a hold of them on it.

Jack, how does the Dalehurst approach signal 1703?

I was calling them on channel 1 three or four times,

and there was no answer, so I tried to get a hold of them

on different channels.

NARRATOR: Once again, Smith's testimony doesn't add up.

Foisy has heard from other trainmen

who were monitoring their radios in the area that day.

No one heard Smith call.

Smith says he was still trying to contact Hudson when

the end of the train raced past signals

telling it to slow down.

Jack!

NARRATOR: As an experienced trainman,

Smith knows that the next set of lights

will likely be a triple red, telling the train to stop.

He was getting no answer, and the train wasn't slowing down.

An emergency brake cord was within easy reach,

but Smith never pulled it.

At that time, I didn't think that anything was wrong.

That's the point I make, Mr. Smith, that when there is

a problem with the radio, you've been trained over the years

to observe the signals.

And it would have been the last thing I would have done.

RENE FOISY: He didn't pull the brake.

He didn't pull the air because he felt that it

hadn't reached that point.

Basically, that was his evidence.

And I had a lot of difficulty with that because if--

if it, uh-- if that point hadn't been reached,

when was it going to be reached, if ever?

NARRATOR: Smith's contradictory testimony is complete.

Judge Foisy is now ready to close his case

and lay the blame on those responsible for the disaster.

NARRATOR: The inquiry into one of Canada's deadliest

train crashes is complete.

23 people were killed when a freight

train crashed head on into a passenger

train near Hinton, Alberta.

Chief investigator Renee Foisy has

explored every angle from technical malfunction

to human error.

He is now ready to deliver his verdict

on what went wrong that day.

In his 205 page report, Foisy parcels out the blame,

naming all the key offenders.

Foisy writes that the train's engineer, Jack Hudson,

failed to observe and obey signals commanding

him to stop his train.

If Hudson was unable to do his job,

brakeman Marc Edwards failed to intervene.

He also ignored the light signals

and didn't stop the train before it entered the single track.

Conductor Wayne Smith is guilty too.

He had failed to follow operating rules

and pull the emergency brake when

he couldn't contact the two men at the front of the train.

In his statement to police, he had even suggested that he

thought they were sleeping.

It said that my head end was asleep.

LAWYER: Do you recall making that response, sir?

Yes, I do.

NARRATOR: With so many contradictions

in his testimony, Foisy rules that the conductor's

evidence is unreliable.

I wasn't sure what had--

what had happened.

And I went to my back desk.

I jumped on from the cupola and ran for--

it seemed like we were just keeping going.

There was no immediate stopping.

The caboose kept sliding.

NARRATOR: Instead, Foisy emphasizes that Smith--

like Edwards and Hudson--

was dangerously tired that morning.

I just wanted to-- get home, actually, at the time.

NARRATOR: The crew aren't the only ones

Foisy blames for the accident.

According to his report, Jack Hudson

may have well had a stroke or heart

attack before the collision, but CN

management had known about Hudson's

medical condition for years.

He managed to accumulate, I think it was 40 or 50 demerits,

and at 60, you're fired.

But after he got to that level, there

were some other infractions which weren't recorded.

NARRATOR: Foisy also calls attention to the rules that

were routinely ignored, such as rigging the dead man's pedal

and taking the train on the fly.

RENE FOISY: There is a lesson to be learned here.

It's that when you have rules, you obey the rules,

and you enforce the rules.

If it becomes too much of a fraternity

and of a buddy-buddy system, it gets lax, and problems occur.

And this tragedy was one of them.

NARRATOR: Foisy demands that CN improve its safety equipment,

recommending that all trains be equipped with reset safety

control technology.

These systems are much more sophisticated

than a dead man's pedal.

If an operator fails to pay constant attention,

alarms sound, and the train eventually shuts down.

The equipment has proved valuable several times

since the disaster.

ALISON SMILEY: There was a study done with CN 10 years

after this accident.

They found something like 90% of the train engineers

saying that they had been woken by the alerting device at least

once.

NARRATOR: In response to Foisy's report,

CN Rail creates one of the most sophisticated fatigue

countermeasures programs in the world.

Trainmen are no longer on call seven days a week,

24 hours a day.

Napping is no longer frowned upon.

Rest houses have been improved and locomotive

cabs made more comfortable.

For the victims of the disaster, changes to Canadian railroading

came too late.

I still remember the people that

were killed in the accident and good friends I

had on the railroad.

And that really-- it does bother me.

Too much of a tragedy to think about luck.

Had too much-- there's too much hurt

that happened inside of me.

It took me quite a while to rebuild my--

my sanity again.

I got over it fairly quickly and got on with their life.

There may be lots of other people who weren't as lucky.

JAMES HEYD: You can be going along in life,

and then something can come along and just kind of destroy

your very foundation, or shatter your very foundation, and

through no fault of your own.

But life has a habit of doing that.

But the other thing I can share with them

is that you can recover from it.

There is a tomorrow.